Equipment

Lab Facilities

The PetroLab facility is the first analytical lab in Israel which focuses on analytical measurements of sedimentary cores, aiming to integrate petrophysics, sedimentology and mineralogy with subsurface geophysical interpretation.

PetroLab is furnished with state-of-the art analytical gear, including the GeoTek Multi-Sensor Core Logger (MSCL) which is used for high-resolution, non-destructive petrophysical measurements of cores. Sensors mounted on our MSCL includes magnetic susceptibility P-Wave sonic velocity and gamma-density. PetroLab's MSCL is the only one of its kind in Israel and surrounding countries.

The MSCL gear at PetroLab.

The PetroLab also includes the Vinci-Technologies steady state gas Permeameter and Helium-Porosimeter (HEP-P), which are used to measure permeability and porous space of plug samples for reservoir overburden integrity.

For sedimentological analyses, the PetroLab analytical hub includes a series of analytical gear suitable for chemical, physical and biological analyses. Our Rigaku MiniFlex XRD diffractometer is excellent for mineralogical analyses, while for Total Organic/Inorganic Content (TOC/TIC) analysis, PetroLab is furnished with a Skalar Primacs TOC Analyzer in solids/liquids. In addition, for elemental analyses our S-Mobile PD/SDD XRF spectrometer from Xenemetrix provides excellent results for non-destructive elemental analysis from sub-ppm to 100% concentrations.

Complementary microscopy is available for thin slide and smear slide visualization of mineralogical and sediment grain interpretations. The PetroLab has been recently equipped with a NeoScope benchtop SEM that complements research capabilities and provides high resolution SEM imaging at a 10X-60,000X magnification. The gear includes Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). We also hold a MC-100 Dielectric Cell designed for dielectric constant and dissipation factor measurements on viscous materials.

The Skalar-Primacs TOC (left), the Xenemetrix XRF spectrometer (center left) and the Benchtop Jeol SEM with complementary EDS technology (center right) and the XRD Miniflex of Rigaku (right)

A series of software packages have been acquired and are available at PetroLab for research, including ArcGIS and GlobalMapper for spatial analysis, Kingdom Seismic Interpretation Software (IHS), Wellcad (RockWare) and IP (Senergy) for geophysical treatment and well-data analyses. Software packages for handling core data and statistics include Coralizer, R statistical software, Canoco for Windows and Matlab.

PetroLab works in full cooperative agreements with AMEL lab headed by Prof. Yizhaq Makosky from the Department of Marine Geosciences in several joint projects and shared facilities, including the Paradigm Geophysical software.